Public Health

The aim of education and study in the newly accredited two-year follow-up Master's studies program “Public Health” is to acquire the theoretical knowledge and practical skills in the field of “Public Health” needed to perform managerial functions in the system of health service providers and health protection and promotion. The aim of the study is to educate and prepare students for clinical practice and research to be competent to perform activities aimed at promoting Public Health and quality of health services and care provided on the basis of scientific evidence, especially in the following key areas of study:

- Medical management and leadership,

- Management and monitoring of the clinical trial,

- Health technology assessment,

- Developing systematic reviews and clinical practice guidelines,

- Coding of health services.

The content of the program is therefore focused on consolidating and deepening the education acquired in the previous bachelor's degree; or a master's program and, secondly, to acquire specific knowledge and skills in the field of healthcare, its management and evaluation in the context of internationally recognized requirements defined by the Agency for Public Health Education Accreditation (APHEA). In the context of APHEA, graduates will also be able to work in the field of public health at workplaces outside the Czech Republic, especially in Europe.

The new curriculum will reflect the transformation of the health care system in the context of international efforts to improve care (changes in health service delivery and management and quality assessment) and respond to labor market demands as well as missing graduates with appropriate professional qualifications (health service quality manager, clinical trial monitor, health services encoder, clinical practice methodologies).

Currently, it is possible to acquire similarly focused knowledge and skills only within individual isolated certified courses (to acquire special professional competence) or specialization courses (to acquire specialized professional competence), so their quality and homogeneity in terms of content and users are not unambiguously guaranteed. but in particular, the graduates are not assured that their knowledge and skills will be used in clinical practice.

Requirements for improving the quality of health services, their corresponding reporting and subsequent reimbursement are key components of a properly functioning health service based on modern principles and available scientific knowledge.

Also with regard to the need for rationalization and transparency of health care expenses, demographic trends and the need to support preventive programs, it is necessary to educate professionals who are familiar with the issues of health services management.

Positive of the newly designed program is, in contrast to the model that has been used so far in lifelong education of health care professionals, a comprehensive conception of the issue, the possibility to use experience from abroad in education in Public Health and in the future the legislative anchoring of the profession.

After successfully completing his/her studies the graduate is able to:

• Define and practically use and apply prudent application of best scientific evidence in public health practice (EBHC).
• Decide on the issue of process management, manage the transition from functional to process organization of the institution and manage the basic issues of support services management.
• Act as an expert able to train other healthcare professionals in the identification and application of scientific evidence in public health practice (EBHC).
• Communicate professionally with healthcare providers (doctors and other healthcare professionals) as well as with care recipients about solving practical problems in the field of health services management, coding and monitoring
• Use a broad theoretical knowledge of legal, economic and ethical disciplines in the management of health services.
• Use the knowledge of legislation related to the health care system, especially with the impact on the provision of health services in the area of quality of health care
• Document the procedures leading to the application of best scientific evidence in Public Health Practice (EBHC) - from identification to implementation
• Practically use information from international and national databases of health information - Eurostat and the Czech Statistical Office (CZSO), Institute of Health Information and Statistics (UZIS) with an emphasis on analysis
• Use managerial skills (planning, organization, leadership and control), principles of strategic management, strategy creation and its implementation at the health service provider.
• Use knowledge of development of European and Czech health policy, European strategy of the World Health Organization, basic EU directives related to health, European health systems and regional health
• Create, interpret and apply systematic reviews, and clinical practice guidelines, implement assessments to the highest standards of health technology assessment.
• Use the nomenclature and classification systems used in health care and code health services.

Specialization of the program Public Health is based on broad bases of biomedical and managerial disciplines, with a strong emphasis on practical aspects of graduate employment in management and management positions in the system of health service providers and promotion of health policy in the field of health protection and promotion. The broad basis and the flexible choice of diploma theses will enable graduates to also focus on applied epidemiological, biomedical and clinical research, health technology assessment, and Evidence-Based Healthcare (systematic review and clinical practice guidelines). Successful graduates of the submitted program will find employment in organizations of providers of health as well as social services (in common clinical practice, management and research in the Czech Republic and also abroad) in non-profit organizations aimed at promoting public health.

Furthermore, thanks to the knowledge of the medical nomenclature and coding services, graduates can be employed in health insurance companies. By acquiring knowledge and skills in health statistics, they will find employment in organizations focused on monitoring the performance of health services (state and non-state institutions, state administration bodies). Thanks to evidence-based healthcare knowledge and clinical trial monitoring, they will also work in specialized research institutes and will be able to cooperate internationally (for more details see feasibility studies).

Practical training is an integral part of the education in the submitted program and will be provided for all students at contractual providers of health services/healthcare facilities who are already involved in providing clinical subjects at the Faculty of Medicine and external employers. Practical lessons will be focused on gaining experience in the management of health care facilities, health service providers (HR, economic department, department of quality assessment, coding and monitoring of health services, department of research activities of health service provider - department for science and research). Teaching will be conducted under the guidance of experienced mentors, recognition of completion of practice will always be based on the written statement of the authorized mentor from the workplace where the practice is realized. The specific content of the practice will be defined in the list of tasks and activities (“logbook”) that the student is obliged to implement during the practice and which will subsequently be confirmed by the practice guarantor.

Topics and goals of the diploma theses are varied. Students often choose topics they have encountered during their studies, professional practice or occupational issues. It is assumed that by elaborating the final thesis, the student will demonstrate the ability to work with scientific literature, the ability to formulate research objectives and research questions, choose the right research methodology, and analyze the data appropriately (quantitative research uses absolute and relative frequency in descriptive analysis). In the discussion part, the student compares his findings with other professional sources, reflects on the results, suggests recommendations for practice.

Assessment of final theses by supervisor and opponent is realized in the form of templates - Supervisor's report and Opponent's diploma thesis assessment (individual areas of the thesis are evaluated - meaning of the thesis, processing of the theoretical part, processing of the empirical part, discussions and conclusions.

The structure of the thesis has strict rules and prescribed structures. Instructions for the elaboration of the final thesis follow the internal regulations of the Faculty of Medicine of Masaryk University, as well as the reviewed publication Methodology for the elaboration of the final thesis for selected non-medical health care disciplines author's team of the Department of Nursing and Midwifery of the Faculty of Medicine MU), which provides specific criteria and recommendations for the final thesis. The publication of the team of authors is a multimedia electronic teaching material [website, downloadable Adobe Acrobat (PDF) and eBook reader (ePub)], available at https://is.muni.cz/do/rect/el/estud/ lf / js19 / methodology_zp / web / index.html

The final version of the thesis is uploaded into the Information System of Masaryk University in the section - archive.

The study program is designed as a follow-up Master's program, so its possible direct continuation is, therefore, doctoral study only. Among the possible study programs of doctoral studies (and are already realized at the Faculty of Medicine of MU) are the following: Bioethics; Hygiene, preventive medicine, and epidemiology.

It is also creditable the completion of relevant subjects within other bachelor and master degree programs within the Faculty of Medicine or other faculties of MU and study the second-degree program (eg economics, law, social work and more at MU). Thus graduate gained even wider knowledge related to management and legal regulations. A prerequisite is also the preparation of a doctoral program directly linked to the proposed program - “Public Health Service”.